US News going big on rankings of things like cars and trucks and consumer goods

U.S. News and World Report, which pioneered university rankings (America's Best Colleges) on which the well-known Maclean's university rankings were originally modelled, have gone on to rank other aspects of American's lives -- health, hospitals, graduate schools, health plans, leaders. This doesn't make the magazine unique because many other titles, particularly business titles, thrive on the hundred biggest this and the 50 best that. But it is finding that rankings, are a way to boost declining print market share.

Every year America's Best Colleges is U.S. News's best-selling issue, with its hospital and grad school rankings also popular. According to a story in MediaDaily News, the magazine hopes to apply the same magic with the launch of a "best of" website that will rank a whole range of things Americans buy such as consumer electronics, packaged goods and -- already in beta testing -- cars and trucks.

RankingsAndReviews.com will key off the appetite of readers to do online research; they cite a Zogby International study that found 78% of adults with incomes over $50,000 annually did research online before buying a car, for instance.

According to U.S. News, the new Web site relies on the same ranking methodology used in its college and hospital rankings. The ranking methodology calls for the collection of copious statistical information and a review of all professional and journalistic opinions on the subject, including articles in the trade press and expert assessments. The Web site then boils these down to a single numerical grade, from 1-10, for each car or truck.

The increased emphasis on rankings has come in the face of seeing U.S. News single copy sales fall 6.1% in the first half of 2007, compared to the same period last year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It has also seen an almost 20% decline in total readership between spring 2005 and spring 2007, according to MRI (from 11.5 million to 9.2 million).